Terry Butcher was left wondering how Inverness Caledonian Thistle contrived to take only a point from a game in which they had over-whelmed Kilmarnock.
As it was, he had Roman Golobart to thank for salvaging a draw with the equaliser after the on-loan Wigan defender had given the visitors a first-half lead with an inexplicable own goal.
Golobart, a powerful if sometimes erratic centre-back, had shown a determination to make amends after his lob over the head of his own goalkeeper, Ryan Esson, and when he thumped the ball into the visitors' net late on in one of the last of a catalogue of Inverness attacks, the relief all round the Caledonian Stadium was palpable.
"It's the same old story," said manager Butcher. "It's like deja vu, like groundhog day, where we totally dominated the game. I don't think I've had a team dominate a match so much, not when I was manager at Motherwell or at Caley Thistle, where we've had as many opportunities to score – 19 or 20 I'm told – or had the ball in so many good positions and we simply haven't put the ball in the net. I can't believe we haven't won that game."
A fair part of the reason for that was the sparkling form of Cammy Bell. Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels hailed his No 1 as the in-form keeper of the moment in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League after he watched the player block, stop and save a series of shots from an effervescent home team.
"The big thing for me," said Shiels, "was that Cammy has certainly moved himself along-side Allan McGregor [of Rangers] as the best keeper in the country. You can see it week in, week out and he keeps performing so well.
"He has only recently signed a new contract so I have no thoughts about losing him. I want all of my players to have a career path and if he moves on then that would be fantastic form him, but at the moment, on current form, he's the best goalkeeper in Scotland."
Keen to make amends for an ineffective performance in capitulating to Dundee United at Tannadice last Monday night, and perhaps with the words of their manager still fresh in their minds, the home side were both attractive and impressive in early stages as they created a trio of chances. Billy McKay booted the ball high after creating space for himself then had another effort blocked by Bell who, as the rebound fell for Sam Winnall, produced a super-human effort to re-position himself in time to stop the striker's shot.
It was to mark the beginning of an extra-busy day for the goalkeeper as he saved shot after shot. Full-back Graeme Shinnie also headed clear a Mahamadou Sissoko header from David Silva's corner kick as the visitors were pummelled so much that you had to feel, sooner or later, their opponents would succumb.
However, the Highland domin-ance was rendered meaningless on the half-hour mark courtesy of a moment of aberration from Golobart.
Unmarked and untroubled as a Killie ball entered his territory, he bizarrely lobbed it on its way high over an astonished Esson into the net. Not for the first time this season, then, Caley were behind in a game in which they were in command.
As Greg Tansey's 12-yard shot seconds after the interval bounced past Bell's right-hand post and when he watched Winnall's angular strike inch past the same upright only a few minutes later, Butcher might have thought it was to be another one of those days.
However, parity was restored with seven minutes left when, in yet another Caley raid, Golobart was on hand two yards out to ram the ball home to present his team-mates with a crumb of comfort.
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